EVILS FOLLOWING DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 63 



nothing but ruins. The water is still standing in large 

 pools in some places. But a few well built houses 

 served as places of refuge for those who were able 

 to make their escape. Out of a population of from 

 three to four hundred seventy-nine perished that night, 

 the fourth-part of the whole number of inhabitants. 

 At present there stands on the open place beside the 

 church a well built wooden barracks, which serves as a 

 dwelling place for many of those who remain. The same 

 committee of aid that built this has built several new stone 

 houses. Thousands of articles of clothing are being dis- 

 tributed amongst those who only escaped with their lives ; 

 and yet, gratefully as all this is acknowledged, the great- 

 ness of the misery does not seem to have been much 

 lessened. At least not in the country, for there it is not 

 enough to give the people money to rebuild their houses ; 

 a new means of gaining a livelihood must be found for 

 them until, perhaps after years, they can free their fields, 

 which formerly sustained them, from the sand under which 

 they are buried. We can, however, testify that the people 

 are busily at work ; everywhere they are to be seen digging 

 away the sand, removing the ruins, and building new 

 houses a proof that the charity bestowed upon them is 

 not wasted. 



1 Much has been done in the way of private charity by 

 the Spaniards. Help from abroad has not been withheld, 

 and has been gratefully acknowledged; and there are 

 capable individuals on the committee of help who not 

 only look to giving momentary help, but also see that by 

 making new roads and better canals, work is given to those 

 who have none, and a similiar misfortune be hindered for 

 the future. Murcia, too, suffered much. The whole of 

 the southern suburb is destroyed. From many a roof the 

 unfortunates had to be rescued by ladders ere the whole 

 house fell in. Along the whole road the traces of the 

 destructive element are to be seen. It must have been a 

 sadly grand and imposing sight to see this endless waste 

 of waters, over which, the palms which grow in great 



